O’er the Lion hangs the Virgin,
in her place in heaven, With her corn-ear;—­justice-finder,
city-foundress, she: And in them that do
such office Gods may still be known. She, then,
is the Gods’ own Mother, Peace, Strength,
Ceres, all; Syria’s Goddess, in her Balance
weighing life and Law. Syria sent this Constellation
shining in her sky Forth for Libya’s worship:—­thence
we all have learnt the lore. Thus hath come
to understanding, by the Godhead led, Marcus Caecilius
Donatianus Serving now as Tribune-Prefect, by the
Prince’s grace.

F. 8.—­These obscure lines Dr. Hodgkin refers
to Julia Domna, the wife of Severus, the one Emperor
that Africa gave to the Roman world. He was an
able astrologer, and from early youth considered himself
destined by his horoscope for the throne. He was
thus guided by astrological considerations to take
for his second wife a Syrian virgin, whose nativity
he found to forecast queenship. As his Empress
she shared in the aureole of divinity which rested
upon all members of the Imperial family. This
theory explains the references in the inscription
to the constellation Virgo, with its chief star Spica,
having Leo on the one hand and Libra on the other,
also to the Syrian origin of Julia and her connection
with Libya, the home of Severus. It may be added
that Dr. Hodgkin’s view is confirmed by the fact
that this Empress figures, on coins found in Britain,
as the Mother of the Gods, and also as Ceres.
The first line may possibly have special reference
to her influence in Britain during the reign of Severus
and her stepson[299] Caracalla (who was also her second
husband), Leo being a noted astrological sign of Britain.[300]
The inscription was evidently put up in recognition
of promotion gained by her favour, though the exact
interpretation of Tribunus in praefecto requires
a greater knowledge of Roman military nomenclature
than we possess. Dr. Hodgkin’s “Tribune
instead of Prefect” seems scarcely admissible
grammatically.

F. 9.—­Another inscription which may be
mentioned is that referred to by Tennyson in ‘Gareth
and Lynette’ (l. 172), which

“the vexillary
Hath left crag-carven over the streaming
Gelt."[301]

This is one of the many such records in the quarries
south of the Wall telling of the labours of the fatigue-parties
sent out by Severus to hew stones for his mighty work,
and cut on rocks overhanging the river. It sets
forth how a vexillatio[302] of the Second Legion
was here engaged, under a lieutenant [optio]
named Agricola, in the consulship of Aper and Maximus
(A.D. 207);[303] perhaps as a guard over the actual
workers, who were probably a corvee of impressed
natives.